The Final Problem
by CitrusCactus
Summary: Adventure/02: Izzy just might have found a problem that even he can't solve. Semi-cracky oneshot.


"The Final Problem"

_Adventure/02: Izzy just might have found a problem that even he can't solve._

_Author's note: Yeah, I've been reading a bit too much Sherlock Holmes to come up with a title like that. Digimon belongs to Disney/Toei. Fluffy the Tokomon belongs to Claire and the infamous Lost Temple of Ishida (man, I miss that site!)_

- - - - -

Of all of the mysteries spread across two worlds, Izzy thought with a twinge of annoyance, this was the most difficult he had ever encountered.

He had been working on it for hours. Well, really, he had been working on it for a lot longer than _that_, but today had been one of those rare days when he thought he could make some real progress, and had decided to set a good chunk of the afternoon aside to tackle it with a clear head and open mind.

However, much to Izzy's continued chagrin, it had been as fruitless today as always. The evidence was plastered all over his computer screen in the form of lines of code, graphs, and simulations. It also littered his desk: papers with lengthy calculations hastily scrawled across them, some crumpled into loose balls, others with their content scratched out in frustration. Obviously, his continued failure wasn't from a lack of trying. The physics of the system just didn't make sense to him, and that, he admitted, was something he didn't say to himself very often.

He had studied his subject extensively, of course. Over the the last few years, he had made countless measurements and observations, everything he could think of to better understand it. He had estimated its physical properties (weight, center of gravity, and coefficient of thermal expansion, among others); proved that it followed some of the basic laws of motion; analyzed the forces acting on it (both static and dynamic); simulated its behavior under certain ideal conditions; and plotted its size and shape over time to predict future activity. But every time he thought he had the underlying equations finally figured out, a singular event would occur-- a thunderstorm, a particularly humid day, or one of any number of other external stimuli-- that he would run the numbers for, come up with a nonsensical answer, and feel the need to start all over again from square one.

Its behavior was just so inconsistent. That was the problem with it, the thing that kept him up some nights when he was reviewing his methodology and metrics over and over in his brain. Maybe there were just too many variables. Not only did he have to account for the myriad of variations in the atmosphere (temperature, pressure, moisture, air velocity), but he hadn't ruled out the possibly that magnetic fields and seismic activity played some part as well.

And then there was the Tokomon. How on Earth the Tokomon fit into all of this was perhaps the greatest enigma of all. After the little digimon had moved in and made its nest, Izzy had to recalculate all of his coefficients and scrap almost an entire half-year's worth of work. At this point, Izzy wouldn't be surprised if that Tokomon was the only thing keeping the system from collapsing on itself and turning into a black hole. Why not? After all that he had seen recently, he wasn't sure anything would surprise him about it, anymore. If only he could prove _why_ it might happen...

Izzy sighed. Sometimes he thought he should just give up on this particular quest for knowledge. His research into the Digital World was not only more useful to the population at large, but more satisfying, as it actually made sense on occasion. Still, he couldn't help but think if he figured out this one problem, came up with some great Unified Theory, it would be a great breakthrough for understanding some major truths about the universe. Maybe that was why he kept coming back to it, even though working on it was like pounding his head against a brick wall.

Well, he had had enough of it for the time being. It was time to put it aside until another time he felt like working on it.

"Tai? Tai, wake up."

The older boy stirred on Izzy's bed, his eyes flickering open. He sat up, yawned, and stretched luxuriously. "Wow. I must've dozed off. You done for the night, Iz?"

Izzy nodded, rubbing a hand over his strained eyes. "I think so. Thanks for letting me take some more measurements, though."

"No prob." Tai looked at his watch. "Yeah, it's getting late. We'd better head home, or we'll be late for dinner."

A squeak and a soft rustling sound proceeded the Tokomon head that appeared above Tai's headband. "Did someone say dinner?" she asked delightedly. "That's my favorite meal! What's your Mom making tonight, Tai?"

"With our luck, liver-and-kidney surprise." Tai stuck out his tongue and wrinkled his nose at this unpleasant prospect. "Anyway. Same time, same place next week, Izzy?"

"You know it," Izzy said, giving his friend a tired smile. "Gotta keep tracking its status."

Tai made to stand up, but something was pulling him back down. "Whoops! Forgot about that." He removed the long metal probe that had been taped to his temple and placed it near the multimeter it was connected to, then a second sensor, which he placed on top of the Geiger counter. When he was sure that he wasn't attached to any other equipment, he walked to the door and casually raised a hand in farewell. "See ya!"

"Bye, Tai. Bye, Fluffy." As Izzy saw the Tokomon wave cheerily back at him and dive back into the tangled brown mass and heard the door to his bedroom close, a new sense of determination gripped him. He would try next week, and the week after, and countless more weeks after that. He _would_ figure out how Tai's hair worked, no matter how long it took.


End file.
